2024 Aspen Cyber Summit

Connecting the dots between the cybersecurity challenges of today and the topics that matter to you.

The 9th annual Aspen Cyber Summit made its debut in Washington, DC, on September 18. Watch the recording.

Aspen Digital

Building a More Public A.I. Ecosystem

Colorized photo of a panel on stage in front of a crowd. The panel includes B Cavello, Zach Whitman, Victoria Houed, Travis Hoppe, and Katerina Antypas
August 14, 2024

On August 14th, Aspen Digital, the Library of Congress, Metagov, and the Public AI Network hosted an invitation-only gathering to strengthen and spark new collaborations across the public sector, academia, and civil society to build a public AI ecosystem that benefits the American public.

Across the government, many efforts are already underway to put AI to work to positively impact the American public, from the AI Executive Order to the National AI Research Resource Pilot. Building on this momentum, this event brought together leaders from the public sector, academia, tech, and civil society to lay a foundation for viable public alternatives and complements to private AI systems.

The event opened with a keynote from Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, on why this is the moment for public AI.

While much of the programming was discussion-based and interactive, remarks from the following speakers punctuated the event.

Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Harvard University

Julia Lane, Professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Beth Noveck, Professor at Northeastern University and Director of The GovLab

Carolyn Dee, Assistant Secretary for Technology at the New York Governor’s Office

Robert Underwood, Postdoctoral Appointee at Argonne National Laboratory

Katerina Antypas, Director of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation

Travis Hoppe, Assistant Director of AI Research and Development at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Victoria Houed, Director of AI Policy and Strategy at the U.S. Department of Commerce

Zach Whitman, Chief Data Scientist and Chief AI Officer at the U.S. General Services Administration

Moderated by B Cavello, Director of Emerging Technologies at Aspen Digital

This event was made possible thanks to our co-hosts at the Library of Congress and support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

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